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Can I ask for recommendations for online services?

I read Can I ask for recommended websites? but what I want to ask about doesn't really seem to fall into either the "web site" or "web app" categories discussed there.

I want to ask about secure online fax services.

Other examples of "online services" off the top of my head (to make this more general) are, uh... cloud security services (e.g. zScaler), data backup services (e.g. Amazon Glacier), things like that, services that aren't distinct interactive apps but also aren't downloadable software applications.

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    Feel free to edit out those product names, I had a small internal struggle choosing between giving specific examples vs. being unintentionally spammy. The former won.
    – Jason C
    Mar 27, 2020 at 1:57
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    I think the examples you provided are helpful.
    – End Anti-Semitic Hate Mod
    Mar 27, 2020 at 7:07

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Agreeably, the exact line between "websites" and "web-apps" is a bit gray.

The main distinction I currently use when making this call is whether or not the web-app/website stores or processes a significant amount of your data. Thus recommendations for webmail web-apps are allowed, but recommendations for online dictionary sites are not allowed.

Regarding online fax services specifically, I consider them to be web-apps. Most of them store your data, and all of them process your data.

Note that the decision to not allow recommendations for websites was decided by the community. As far as I know, the community can decide to change this decision if that's what people prefer. Personally, I see benefits both ways, and as one of your elected community moderators, I'm very willing to abide by whatever the community desires on this topic.

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    Note from another mod (me): I use the same criteria to distinguish (but with a focus on "processes" – as "hosting recommendations" are clearly off-topic). Where I slightly disagree with RockPaperLizard is whether permitting "website recommendations" would be a good idea. This site is called Software Recommendations for a reason :) But of course I agree again when our Lizard says to be "willing to abide by whatever the community desires on this topic": We mods are not rulers, we are custodians/stewards :)
    – Izzy Mod
    Mar 27, 2020 at 8:12
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    @Izzy Thanks Izzy. I'm not really a proponent or detractor (that doesn't seem like the best antonym!) of website recommendations here. I think I'm mildly in favor of them right now, but there are downsides involved (I think we discussed some of those). Whatever the community wants is good. I think the most important thing is that that this SE helps people, and while doing so, doesn't become a host for spam. I think this community is achieving that goal exceptionally well.
    – End Anti-Semitic Hate Mod
    Mar 28, 2020 at 10:04
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    Agreed – but the line is already pretty thin now. If we start allowing websites, this will go wild – and sorry if I say so, I wouldn't want to moderate that. Where to draw the line then? Are e.g. hotel booking sites on-topic (they work with your data, don't they)? Or shopping sites? Sites with tutorials, book reviews, music downloads, you-name-it? I'm clearly opposed – moderating that would be a pain (for the remaining mods), and the site probably a mess within weeks. But yes, I'm neither the king nor the pope, so that would be a community descision.
    – Izzy Mod
    Mar 28, 2020 at 13:24
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    Thanks. It's strange because "software" is becoming more and more decentralized in the past decade, it makes things complicated. Even with like, the fax stuff; it used to be WinFax and a modem, now it's a browser UI and the internet. I think maybe I'll just post the question and if it gets the savage community smack-down, so be it.
    – Jason C
    Mar 29, 2020 at 16:55

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